Nikolai Petrov

TV Zvezda Host

“Here, by the way, is the perfect, freshest example of such fanning of a hybrid war. It is a recent report by the RAND Corporation -- financed, by the way, by the U.S. Defense [Department] – regarding so-called hybrid Russian aggression in the Baltic states. The report is, in essence, war propaganda and frightening the population about the inevitability of Russian intervention in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.”

Sergei Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister

"I understand that some countries would like to forget as soon as possible about the role that they played in the years of prior to World War II. However, I deem those attempts to accuse us of militarizing public opinion as offensive."

Many countries distort or omit inconvenient facts from their pre-World War II history, but Russia has all but eliminated the most difficult discussions from its state education system. One man was even fined for posting factual information.

The United States and several other NATO member countries have fought Islamic State on the ground or supported anti-IS operations. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have contributed the most to the defeat of IS.

Former Ukrainian lamaker Vasyl Volha appeared on Russian TV warning that NATO exercises in Estonia are an act of aggression against Russia. Volha claimed that every NATO member state is doubling its defense budget starting from this year. But while NATO military spending is up, it has not doubled.

Dmitry Peskov

Kremlin's press secretary

“We need to remember that our Chinese partners did not join the sanctions themselves, the so-called sanctions, but it’s more correct to speak of restrictions -- which, moreover, are illegal from the point of view of international law.”

Beijing did not formally join international sanctions against Russia and so did not impose its own measures. China criticized Western sanctions, yet even Peskov says Russia's "Chinese partners often display caution" -- defacto compliance.

Vladimir Putin

President of the Russian Federation

"We have no desire to create problems for the new Ukrainian government, but to tolerate a situation in which people living in the territory of these Donetsk and Luhansk republics are generally deprived of any civil rights, this is already crossing the line from the point of view of human rights."

The Donbas area in Putin’s statement is under Russian control, according to international authorities – following Russia’s covert push to create separate “republics” Also, a Russian passport is no guarantee of civil rights.

Ramzan Kadyrov

head of Chechnya

“The U.S. claims that its armed forces are fighting terrorism and drug trafficking in that country (Afghanistan). But UN data says otherwise. Since the beginning of this year alone, around 400 civilians have died through the fault of the U.S. troops and the forces of official Kabul enlisted by them. That is significantly more than the deaths at the hands of the Taliban, to whom were attributed 227 victims.”

The latest UN report on Afghanistan shows an overall increase in civilian casualties by pro-government forces. However, attributing all the civilian deaths at the hands of pro-government forces to the U.S. military is wrong. U.S. forces are part of an international coalition of 39 nations.

After a Lithuanian court sentenced 67 former Soviet military officers for crimes against humanity in a failed January 1991 crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy drive, Russia has lashed out at the “illegal act,” although the claim fails under international law and historical circumstances.

Yury Ushakov

Russian presidential assistant

“During the last few months the situation around the Korean peninsula has somewhat stabilized, and it became possible mainly thanks to the North Korea’s initiative to renounce nuclear missile testing and the closure of a nuclear test site.”

While Yury Ushakov’s claim that North Korea declared it would renounce nuclear weapons tests and close the test site is correct, Pyongyang’s later actions cast doubt on its commitment to denuclearization as well as its role in stabilizing the situation on Korean peninsula.

Dmitry Medvedev

Russian prime minister

“Despite the sanctions, the portfolio of military orders for Russian military equipment continues to be very significant. It is now estimated at $54.5 billion. There are more than 100 countries among Russia's partners.”